You make some very interesting points, HOWEVER (and there was always going to be a 'however' after I started my post like that), you position seems to assume that non-EvE players will not be able to join EvE corporations.

In my view, that is almost the entire point of this game..... to form bonds between DUST and EvE, be it through major corporations (non-mercenary) or through independent corporations (Mercenaries).

I beleive, and I could be way off the mark here, but it will be like real life........ the Corporations that run both EvE and DUST will not be as strong in DUST as those that are Independent.

The specialists (expert DUSTers) will almost certainly want to stand alone from the Major corporations.

The way I see it, the only time ISK will become and issue for anyone in this game is if they do not join a corporation of some kind, be it a EvE/Dust or a DUST only corp.

Regards

Jax

I wonder how CCP will deal with this.

The main problem will exist for 'pure' Dust players--if you're not part of a Corp that has a presence in EVE, you're going to be behind.

A miner can sit in a T1 mining barge and scoop in a million creds worth of ore in 10 minutes with junky skills. With how FW is going, every month or so it's easy to make a billion just doing a couple L4's a day and cashing in. Hardcore mission runners have a steady stream of income, hardcore Plexers have an order of magnitude greater, and skilled traders have more options than that.

If you're in a pure Dust corp using only Dust guys, you'll never be able to afford anything.

If you're in an EVE-compatible corp, you will never want for cash.

I wonder how CCP will deal with this.

good question, how do you transfer isk to dust and not totally **** off the ps3 players that dont have affiliations to eve.

and not make it look like your forcing people to play eve to support dust.

edit; did they fix the mouse sensitivity yet?

Has anyone ever done something as complicated as joining the economies of two entirely different games before? I do not envy whichever CCP people have the task of figuring out how they can bring Dust and EVE together economically without destroying Dust as a game by making items far too expensive for people without an EVE connection to afford. Most players do not play EVE and will not be involved in competitive, nullsec stuff for EVE corps. The game needs to remain enjoyable for those players as well.



They're dealing with it pretty well right now by simply keeping the economies separate. I think that's a perfectly viable path forward. Make EVE players purchase contracts that are bought with EVE-scale funds and pay out in Dust-scale funds (that is, maybe a contract for 5 billion only awards 5 million or something) or use a third currency that acts as an exchange between Dust and EVE players. Such that, y'know, Dust players earn something via their efforts that is of value to EVE players and vice versa, and items can only be sold from one side to the other using this alternative form of payment. The bulk of the items on the market, meanwhile, could be NPC sold or produced by Dust player factories in districts on controlled planets, rather than by EVE players.

If the currency with the same name exists in both games but can't be exchanged between the two, then it's not the same currency, so they should give it a new name.

It's already established in EVE that planetary-based currency is worthless compared to the InterStellar Kredit. There's even an early-game noob mission where you have a 'stack of money' and it outright tells you this.

So, rolling with that, CCP should come up with a new currency for Dust if they don't intend to link the economies. It makes no sense otherwise.

i would imagine since the begining the plan was always to try and entice ps3 players into EvE and the other way around.

It just occurred to me: Why would the goods produced in EVE to be sold in DUST be so expensive? It doesn't make sense, really.

There are lot's of Dust players who are also EVE players, but the solution to the problem of Dust-only players being unable to afford anything because the prices for items are being set by people with spare billions lying around is not to get those Dust-only players to play EVE.

The main problem will exist for 'pure' Dust players--if you're not part of a Corp that has a presence in EVE, you're going to be behind.

A miner can sit in a T1 mining barge and scoop in a million creds worth of ore in 10 minutes with junky skills. With how FW is going, every month or so it's easy to make a billion just doing a couple L4's a day and cashing in. Hardcore mission runners have a steady stream of income, hardcore Plexers have an order of magnitude greater, and skilled traders have more options than that.

If you're in a pure Dust corp using only Dust guys, you'll never be able to afford anything.

If you're in an EVE-compatible corp, you will never want for cash.

I wonder how CCP will deal with this.

good question, how do you transfer isk to dust and not totally **** off the ps3 players that dont have affiliations to eve.

your kidding yourself. the best corps will still be eve funded, that's the whole concept of the way they designed this game to tie into EvE. its a two way thing eve players will need dust mercs and dust merc need EvE players, maybe not totally at release but that's what they are hoping for in the future.

There are enough EVE players or EVE-connected players that the market would naturally adapt to that wallet size. What's that quote? "Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it." The necessary result of the kind of wealth disparity between Dust-only and EVE players would be that Dust-only players would find whatever stuff players are setting the price for essentially beyond their reach.

A the point of release there will be mega-bucks corporations running around all funded by EvE corps, however, and mark my words (just for the drama) within a month or so, the best performing corporations will NOT be EvE corps.

i agree that would be forcing them to play EvE but remember that ccp needs to make money somewhere.

My message might be a little mixed up, but EvE corps in Dust may have some of the largest disposable income available, however, it will come with a tight (read very tight) leash, whereas a self funding Dust Corporation will get the biggest and best rewards...... and, they'll spend it how they wish, answering only to themselves.

That really doesn't make any sense. As I said before, the corporations in EVE simply won't be able to sell things in DUST if they price their items according to how they're priced in EVE. Capitalism 101 is to please your consumer base, not ostracize them. First off, it doesn't make sense to price an assault rifle or drop suit the same way you would price a starship component, because they're completely different items. On top of that, you're assuming that the EVE players who play DUST will control the pricing. They won't. As I said before, the pricing will control itself, capitalist style, and I doubt that the average price of a product in DUST will be as far out of reach from the average DUST consumer as you're saying, because that just wouldn't make sense in a capitalist economy like the one we're headed towards. The price will be set according to what makes the most profit for the EVE corporation, and I highly doubt that profit will be found in making it so only a minority of DUST players can afford their goods.

And as I said before, CCP can always re-institute the current NPC orders to accommodate the players if things get out of hand, which would force the EVE corporations to lower their prices just to compete with the new, cheaper NPC product.

the isk in eve is transferable to real money if you equate it to gametime. gametime cards=plex=isk. that 10 billion isk contract starting to look better?


actually real money isnt a good description as it never really leaves ccp once it's spent there.

nothing in life is free. ever. free is just a term they use to lure you in

Transferring ISK from an EVE account to a DUST account is unintended behaviour. I would recommend the corporations who have done this to leave it in their corporation wallets while we investigate.

Let's not kid ourselves...

Dust isk and Eve isk will indeed be one and the same currency. Before long Eve corps will be putting up Dust contracts for real isk, and I wouldn't be surprised if not long after that (if not in the same release) capsuleers will be able to send isk direct to Dust mercenaries.

All of those who have expressed an uneasiness about this are quite right to do so. Because of the current disparity in pricing, Eve funded Mercs will have unlimited access to the most expensive kit all the time. Not only does this make the market worthless, but it ruins the game for everyone. Loosing expensive stuff needs to hurt!

So how do we avoid that? The bottom line is this:

The ISK cost of playing for a few hours in Dust needs to be similar to that in EVE.

...and therefore:

Potential hourly earnings in Dust also need to be similar to that in EVE.

That means that (a) Merc kit will need to get more expensive, (b) the potential to make ISK will need to increase.

With such an undervalued market, DUST corps will have no reason to want the lucrative contracts. I don't care if you offer me a 10 billion isk contract, when the 1 billion I currently have in my wallet is enough to fund all my corp members tanks and dropships in every game they play for the next 6 months! ISK needs to be a driving force in Dust, just as it is in EVE.

If the Markets merged right now, with no change to the NPC sale order prices, Dust would be ruined. Though, as I said in the OP, I am sure the Economists at CCP are aware of this - I certainly hope so!

And yes, it might look a bit silly when a fully fitted prototype dropsuit is worth almost as much as a frigate, but there are far sillier things in the universe!